1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and system for reducing noise and interference between electronic communication devices that utilize the same transmission media for communications. More particularly, the invention relates to performing adaptive power control (“APC”) to optimize the transmit power of each communication device in a networking system in order to reduce interference between the network devices and other communications services coupled to the same transmission media, such as interference between broadband services such as xDSL, voice band telephone service, and home networking systems all sharing the same customer premises telephone wiring.
2. Background of the Invention
In response to the increasing demand for communications services available to the home user, an increasing number of sophisticated and complex communication devices/systems are being coupled to customer premises telephone wiring. These devices include fax machines, telephones, computers, computer networks, xDSL devices, satellite movie ordering systems, etc. Yet, customer premises telephone wiring is relatively unsophisticated, typically comprising a simple twisted wire pair. As the number of communication devices attached to the same wire pair increases, the potential for cross-talk, noise or interference between the devices increases.
As one might expect, deployment of xDSL systems and home networking systems that utilize telephone wiring for communications are facing many challenges. One of the most significant challenges is the increasing potential for interference from one service to another since the services may exist on the same wire pairs in the same home or in the same local loop or telephone binder group. These services may have cross-talk interference from one service onto the other which may not only directly degrade performance of those services but may also impact the performance of the other services on the telephone wiring, for example the underlying POTS (plain old telephone service).
Coexistence of broadband services such as xDSL and home networking systems, along with other services utilizing telephone wiring, is essential to the success of these technologies in the marketplace. To assist in the coexistence of these technologies, the present invention is directed to a method and system to lower the potential interference caused by home networking systems.